The film was theatrically released in the United States and in Canada by United Artists Releasing on October 11, 2019. It received mixed reviews from critics for its narrative and screenplay, though the voice acting and animation were praised, and grossed $203 million on a $24 million budget.
It is the final project for Kelly Asbury, who served as a story consultant, before his death a year after the film's release in June 2020.
An angry mob of villagers that rejects anything macabre in nature disrupts the midnight wedding ceremony of Gomez Addams and Morticia Frump and drives them away with the rest of the Addams clan. During the chaos, Grandmama buys Uncle Fester time to evacuate Gomez, Morticia, and Thing. Gomez and Morticia decide to move to New Jersey, a place "no one would be caught dead in." There, Gomez, Morticia, and Thing find their "perfect" home in an abandoned asylum on a hill. They meet Lurch, an escaped mental patient whom they hit when Thing was driving their car, and immediately recruit him as their butler.
13 years later, the Addams family continue to live their gloomy lives in isolation from the outside world. Gomez prepares his son Pugsley for his upcoming "SabreMazurka", a rite of passage that every Addams family member takes. Morticia struggles to keep their daughter, Wednesday, from wanting to experience the world outside the mansion after a balloon and confetti appear on their property.
Elsewhere, reality TV host Margaux Needler, who is building a perfect planned community called "Assimilation" so her show will have a successful season finale, discovers the Addams family's household and becomes determined to rid the town of it when the family refuses to change, starting with spreading rumors about the Addamses through social media, claiming that they are freaks. Wednesday then meets Margaux's neglected daughter Parker and persuades Morticia to let her attend junior high school. Pugsley struggles with the complicated traditions and pressure of his Mazurka, even with the guidance of Gomez and Uncle Fester. Grandmama arrives at the house for the event.
At school, Wednesday stands up for Parker and her twin friends Layla and Kayla from the school's bully Bethany and befriends them after she resurrects some dead frogs and commands them to attack Bethany. Later on, the two discuss their frustrations and change their dressing habits – Parker becomes more gothic and Wednesday dresses more colorfully – to the shock of both of their mothers, with Margaux vowing to destroy the Addamses and Wednesday grounded by Morticia. After an argument with Morticia, Wednesday decides to run away in secret and stay with Parker for a while, which Pugsley inadvertently tells Morticia.
As Cousin Itt arrives at the Addams household, Wednesday and Parker discover a secret room under Parker's house and that Margaux has planted hidden cameras in every house she designed in town. Margaux catches the two and locks them in the attic, but Wednesday breaks them out. Margaux rallies the townsfolk to attack the mansion just as the entire Addams clan arrive for Pugsley's Mazurka.
During the Mazurka, Pugsley fails in front of the whole family, but Gomez admits he forgot to let him be who he is. The mob arrives flinging boulders, severely damaging the mansion and trapping the family inside. Pugsley uses his love of bombs and destruction to defend his family and manages to destroy the mob's trebuchet. Wednesday and Parker join in and help everyone out of the wreckage safely with help of the living tree Ichabod.
Assimilation's civilians realize that the Addamses are not monsters, but a family, as Wednesday and Parker state that everyone is weird in their own unique way, revealing also Margaux's spying on the civilians, who are violated upon hearing this. Margaux gets her comeuppance when her true nature is then exposed during a subsequent tirade against the civilians — demanding they do as she says or be kicked out of town — thanks to Parker live-streaming it on her phone, after which Margaux's agent Glenn informs her their network has cancelled her show because of the bad publicity from said tirade. As Fester comes up with a compromise for Margaux, Assimilation's civilians offer to make amends with the Addamses.
After they work together to rebuild the mansion, the Addams family and Assimilation's civilians live in peace. Margaux becomes Fester's business partner, selling homes to the other members of the Addams clan, and Pugsley is coronated as an Addams for his defending of the clan.
Jenifer Lewis as Great Auntie Sloom, Grandmama's strict and cold sister, Gomez' aunt, and Wednesday and Pugsley's great-aunt with a missing left eye and stilts under her dress who judges Pugsley's Mazurka
Elsie Fisher as Parker Needler, Margaux's neglected and rebellious daughter who regrets not going to live with her father, and who befriends Wednesday
Migos, Karol G, Snoop Dogg, and Rock Mafia recorded a song for the film called "My Family", which was released on September 13, 2019 and plays during the end credits; while Christina Aguilera released the song "Haunted Heart" from the film's soundtrack on September 27, 2019, which plays in the film's opening.[18] HeathisHuman created an updated version of Vic Mizzy's original theme song that plays at the film's ending.[19]
Marketing
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer launched the film with a global promotion partner campaign worth $150 million, their largest ever outside the 007 franchise.[20] They spent a total of $72 million on prints and advertisements for the film.[21]
The film was released by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment digitally on December 24, 2019, followed by a DVD and Blu-ray release on January 21, 2020.
Reception
Box office
The Addams Family grossed $100 million in the United States and Canada and $103 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $203 million.[4][5]Deadline Hollywood calculated the net profit of the film to be $76million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues.[21]
In the United States and Canada, the film was released alongside Gemini Man and Jexi and was projected to gross $28–30 million from 4,007 theaters in its opening weekend.[24] The film made $9.7 million on its first day including $1.25 million from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $30.3 million, finishing second behind holdover Joker.[25] It made $16.3 million in its second weekend, $12 million in its third and $8.2 million in its fourth, finishing fourth, third and sixth, respectively.[26][27][28]
Critical response
On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 45% and an average rating of 5.3/10, based on 159 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Addams Family's starry voice cast and eye-catching animation aren't enough to outweigh its saccharine handling of the delightfully dark source material."[29] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 46 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[30] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported that surveyed children and parents gave it 4 and 3.5 out of 5 stars, respectively.[25]
On October 15, 2019, it was announced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer that a sequel was scheduled for release on October 22, 2021, with Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan reprising their roles as co-directors, and Cinesite Studios returning as animators.[20][32][33] On October 8, 2020, Bill Hader and Javon "Wanna" Walton joined the cast; Hader voices a new character named Cyrus, while Walton replaces Finn Wolfhard as the voice of Pugsley. It was also pushed forward two weeks to October 8, 2021.[34] On January 21, 2021, it was again pushed forward one week to October 1, 2021, allowing another MGM film, No Time to Die to take over the slot.[35] In July 2021, Wallace Shawn was revealed to have voiced a new character for the film.[36] In August 2021, the film shifted its release for a simultaneous premium video on demand rental and theatrical release on the October 1 date, in the United States and Canada, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the rising cases of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant.[37]
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